


The Benefit of Rest

by Crowgirl



Series: On the Strength of the Evidence [56]
Category: Grantchester (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Easter, Family Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Unconventional Families, Unconventional Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 02:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14178777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowgirl/pseuds/Crowgirl
Summary: In search of Sidney.





	The Benefit of Rest

Mrs Maguire’s lips are starting to thin out into a narrow line as she studies the roast in front of her plate and Geordie is just about to stand up and offer to go in search when Leonard clears his throat and pushes his chair back.

‘Why don’t I go and see what’s keeping Sidney?’ he says, dropping his napkin on his chair. ‘I’m sure it must be something important. Perhaps he could use a hand.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Geordie says, following the unspoken suggestion in Cathy’s look and gets a tiny nod for his trouble. 

‘It’ll be just us, Sylvia,’ Cathy says cheerfully and leans forward across the corner of table between the two women, adopting a semi-conspiratorial tone. ‘You can tell me about the Institute meeting I missed.’ 

* * *

Leonard takes a deep breath of chill April air and rolls his shoulders before starting towards the church. ‘I couldn’t stand the silence in that room for one more minute.’

Geordie laughs and falls into step beside him. ‘Mrs Maguire can be silent more loudly than anyone I’ve ever known.’

Leonard makes a noise that, in anyone else, Geordie would call a snort. ‘You never met my Aunt Mabel.’

* * *

The church porch is deserted, the outer door propped open and the inner one only half-shut. ‘Sidney?’ Leonard pushes the inner door open.

The interior of the church is still bright, the effect of the electric lights redoubled by pale flowers on every available surface.

‘Sidney, come on -- Mrs M is going to have _you_ for lunch if you don’t hurry up--’ Leonard’s voice echoes and Geordie follows him down the main aisle. Sidney is obviously not in the pews or the choir stalls and Leonard sighs, glancing back at Geordie. ‘Would you check the office? I’ll have a look in the choir room.’ 

Leonard vanishes behind the choir stalls and Geordie turns to the office door. Out of habit, he knocks, then shakes his head at himself and opens the door. ‘Sidney? 

The back door of the office is open, a cool breeze ruffling the papers on the table and Sidney’s stole and surplice are laid over the back of a chair, but there’s no sign of Sidney. The gramophone is still where it should be as is the telephone which are the only things with monetary value in the room as far as Geordie knows. Sidney isn't in sight and Geordie steps towards the open door and nearly falls over him. He catches himself with a grab at the doorjamb and Sidney makes a discontented movement and mutters but doesn’t wake up. 

How he ever fell asleep is a mystery to Geordie: Sidney’s managed to wedge himself in the angle between the inner doorjamb and the side of a bookcase, one hip perched on the lintel of the door. It looks exceptionally uncomfortable to Geordie and he can’t imagine what Sidney was doing there until he sees the remains of a cigarette on the stone step beside Sidney’s foot -- it had clearly fallen half-smoked and burned itself out. 

Geordie shakes his head and goes down on one knee. ‘Sidney -- c’mon, wake up --’ He hears the office door creak open and, without turning around, says, ‘Found ‘im.’

‘What on earth…’ Leonard’s voice trails off into a sigh. ‘I shouldn’t have taken that week with my mother. I knew it would be too much for him.’

‘Your mum was sick -- what were you supposed to do?’ Geordie says and shakes Sidney’s shoulder gently. ‘Wakey, wakey.’

Sidney’s forehead creases and he takes a deep breath, then lets it out in a long, heavy sigh. 

‘We’ll keep lunch as short as possible,’ Leonard says.

‘That’s if we can get him there. Sidney, lad, come on.’

Sidney sighs again and shifts uneasily, reaching up to bat Geordie’s hand away. Geordie snorts and catches his hand as if shaking it, squeezing hard enough to make Sidney grumble and try to pull his hand away. When he can’t, he shifts again and peers up at Geordie. He blinks, then smiles, and it makes Geordie’s heart clench because the last time he saw that smile had been in his own bedroom and he doesn’t think Leonard is that dense. He tries to push himself to his feet, to put some decent space between them, but Sidney doesn’t let his hand go. 

‘What’re you doing here?’

‘You’re late for lunch,’ Geordie says and tries again to get Sidney to let go.

Sidney is a little stupid with sleep, though, and doesn’t let go. Instead he pushes himself away from the doorjamb with a groan and tries to use Geordie’s hand as a lever to get himself to his feet. ‘I just -- just wanted a quick smoke before --’ He waves his free hand impatiently and Geordie grabs it, taking a step back to haul Sidney up. Sidney stumbles on the lintel as he rises and lurches bodily against Geordie who tries desperately to remember where his hands can acceptably go.

He glances frantically at Leonard whose expression is carefully bland and who now clears his throat. ‘A smoke’s all very well, Sidney, but Mrs Maguire is going to have your head for ruining her lunch.’ 

Sidney jolts away from Geordie, staring at Leonard with a high blush on his cheekbones. Geordie can’t see his own face, but he imagines they look about equally guilty. There’s a moment of deeply uncomfortable silence, broken only by the sound of the wind in the shrubbery outside and the faint click in Sidney’s throat as he swallows.

Leonard finally breaks the quiet. ‘If we don’t get back, I’ll miss picking Ben up at the station.’ He looks directly at Sidney. ‘You remember he’s spending a few days here to do some reading?’

Geordie feels the muscles in Sidney’s arm, still pressed against his own, go tight and then relax as Sidney nods slowly. ‘Yes -- yes, of course. The four-fifty, isn’t it?’

‘The five-fifty, actually. He called this morning.’ Leonard looks from Sidney to Geordie and back again, a look calculated to impart something that Geordie isn’t sure he understands. ‘You’ll have the evening to yourselves, if you want it.’ 

**Author's Note:**

> > That said -perhaps there was to be Easter lunch at the rectory & Sidney didn't arrive. Leonard and Geordie go looking for him at church to find him asleep in the Vestry because Easter Week is basically hazing for church folk. Does Geordie shake him awake and Sidney's indiscreet?
>> 
>> — Katie (@onlysound) [April 1, 2018](https://twitter.com/onlysound/status/980592418818052096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> 
> Title from Shakespeare's [Sonnet XXVIII](https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/sonnets/sonnet_view.php?Sonnet=28).


End file.
